SMUG drug dealer Gary Knox had the smile wiped off his face after he was ordered to hand over £80,000 or face an extra year behind bars.

In January last year Knox was jailed for 11 years and three months for his part in a £1.8 million heroin dealing operation.

Knox, aged 43, of St Gregory's Close, Farnworth, would drive to safe houses in Bolton in a smart Range Rover Evoque to collect drugs and hand them over to others.

But the criminal, who had previously been convicted for buying a book of rival drug dealers’ names from a corrupt police officer, was caught after being put under surveillance for two months.

He and two others pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply heroin and a fourth man was found guilty following a trial. They were jailed for a combined total of almost 30 years.

Knox has now been back in court for a proceeds of crime hearing after a financial investigator located hidden assets.

At Bolton Crown Court Judge Graeme Smith ruled that Knox had benefited from his crimes to the tune of £500,000 and that he should hand over £80,000, which investigators have located, within three months.

If he fails to pay up he could spend another year in prison.

The jail sentence Knox is currently serving relates to a heroin dealing conspiracy uncovered in October 2016.

Knox was observed meeting Nadeem Ashiq at Tesco in Bolton with Ashiq approaching Knox’s Range Rover to collect a bag before driving off.

He was stopped and officers recovered four solid blocks of powder wrapped in tape. They were found to contain almost 2kg of heroin at 48 percent purity, worth £800,000 on the street.

Prior to the meeting Knox had gone to a shed at an address in Elm Road, Little Lever, where police later found a further two parcels containing 1kg of heroin worth up to £400,000.

Knox also visited an address in Ashford Walk and then Nelson Neish got into the Range Rover where Knox handed him a bag.

Neish was stopped by police and and nearly half a kilo of heroin was seized, worth £200,000.

When Knox was arrested £14,000 in cash was found in his car along with keys to an unoccupied property in Thomasson Court, Bolton, where two parcels of heroin were found, worth £400,000.

The heroin seized from the conspirators and at safe houses weighed a total of 4.5kg and was worth £1.8 million on the streets.

Speaking after Knox was jailed, Det Supt Jon Chadwick from Greater Manchester Police’s Serious and Organised Crime Group said: "These drugs destroy lives, they break up families and they terrorise communities. Those who supply drugs do so purely for their own greed. They have no thought for the people whose lives are affected.

“Knox and other members of this drug dealing ring will now spend years in prison where they can contemplate the lives they have ruined.”